As a child growing up in Ohio, I remember learning a little ‘ditty’ of a song in elementary school to remind us of the specifics of the voyage of Christopher Columbus; the famous Italian explorer took that led to the discovery of the North and South American continents. The song expressed the date Columbus set sail and the three ships he received from the Spanish royalty of that day. I never gave the historical geographic event much thought, until I was a student teacher at Edgewood Junior high school in Seven-mile Ohio, with one of the best Social Studies teachers I have ever seen, Burt Shepherd! Together, we made quite a team! We offered an “A” for the year to any student who could prove beyond a doubt the earth was round! Don’t you know those students tried hard to offer proof! From records in books to television, Burt and I debunked them all by portraying OTHER such evidence, like a section of the popular action/ adventure show, ‘The Terminator’  while asking if they believed what they saw in it! We also used other proven wrong historical depictions! In the end, no one could prove the truth—that the world was truly round and earn that “A”!

Recently, Columbus has been scrutinized by liberal revisionist historians to be portrayed as an instrument of evil for having a harmful impact on the Native American inhabitance of the world he discovered. Why would he come under such attack? Some research uncovered the reason! Columbus was not just a swashbuckling adventurer who just took a big risk and ‘guessing’ the world was round!  Royalty in Spain didn’t just give Columbus those three ships and supplies to ravage and pillage the riches he would discover, (Which by the way—was perpetrated by SPANISH soldiers! Remember, Columbus was Italian!)! Columbus was a believer in Jesus Christ who knew Scripture. (NKJV)Isaiah 40:22 says, “It is He who sits above THE CIRCLE of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in (emphasis added by me!). SO, this was not a ‘good guess’ or a ‘calculate gamble’ by the explorer! He read and believed Scripture!

 Go and GROW with GOD!